Welcome to January's newsletter. This month we have an exciting announcement and we reflect on the latest trends as well as our monthly offering of what we're most into this month and geeky tidbits from the world of cyberspace.
TONY
Green Party
We're thrilled to have been appointed to work on a through-the-line campaign for the Green Party during the build up to the General Election. The campaign will be executed through offline and online channels, including a party political broadcast, outdoor and digital. We'll be sure to keep you updated...
Joywashing
Joywashing is to post credit crunch negativity what Greenwashing was to ‘An inconvenient Truth’ - Brands who take it upon themselves to spread happiness through their advertising.
During the last couple of months, the world of advertising has been flooded with smiles, cheering and thumbs up. The deluge had its climax last Christmas when GAP released its 2009 Christmas campaign with incredibly annoying wishes presented in a cheerleading style. (Was this the inspiration behind the much talked about telly series ‘Glee’, which is perhaps an example of Joywashing on its own?)
3 Things to Make You Smarter
Students to study Facebook & Twitter?
Discussions are currently taking place which could see students studying social networking sites as part of a new English GCSE dedicated to Digital Communications. The qualification would sit alongside the traditional English Language and Literature GCSEs and would include a syllabus covering moving image, websites, social networks and blogs in an effort to teach students how to read and critique different types of text.
Source
Gates launches website
Bill Gates has launched a new personal website, www.gatesnotes.com, in order to share his learnings and thoughts with the general public.
Source
YouTube rent movies
YouTube have followed in Apple's footsteps by joining the online film rental market and signing a deal with the Sundance Film Festival to allow users to rent independent films for around £3 for a 48 hour rental.
Source
The Chip Shop Awards
Our Head of Design, Dan Griffiths, is on the judging panel for the somewhat intriguingly named Chip Shop Awards which celebrate creativity at its finest. The Chip Shops award prizes solely on how good an idea is. Better yet, the creative doesn’t need to have run and the client doesn’t need to be yours. Or even exist. The awards are open to anyone with great ideas and entries close on Friday 12th March. Click here for more info and to check out previous winners.
Being and Tim
When philosophy and design collides…
Not just your traditional cartoon strip, and by that we mean (hopefully) great design and a humorous punch line, Being and Tim provides an added educational punch. This is a cartoon that certainly can’t be accused of ‘dumbing-down’.
The cartoon’s creator, Rebecca Dyer, publishes her work on the Being and Tim blog, helpfully including the philosophical context for those of us not in the know and manages to do something even more remarkable; makes us want to learn more about philosophy!
Aaron Koblin
"Data is the pollution of the information age."
Aaron Koblin is a data visualisation artist known for his innovative and beautiful representations of mass information focused around human systems and social infrastructure. Quite uniquely, he attempts to identify cultural patterns and emergent trends - most notably his animation of air traffic over North America.
More abstract works include crowdsourcing data from thousands of individuals, many of which are unaware of exactly what they are participating in, who become single components of something far larger and ‘more intelligent’; taking ordinary information and making it extraordinary.
Click here to learn more.
